International Leadership and Business Summit

Student Solutions

Each year high school students travel from around the globe to transform lives in the developing world by creating solutions for community-owned businesses.

We are excited to show you the achievements of student leaders who have partnered with Leadership Initiatives’ staff, board members, mentors, development experts and community leaders to forever change lives in developing nations.

By combining talented young minds with community entrepreneurs from around the world, our student leaders created and improved locally owned businesses in developing nations, while pushing one another to become better people at the local and international level.

Over the past five years, Leadership Initiatives’ student leaders have created new feeding methods for fish farms, developed new water purification methods, taught advanced welding techniques and streamlined tailoring shop assembly lines, transforming hundreds of lives.

We are excited to showcase how these future leaders are leaving their mark on the world.

Lincoln Fish Farming Team Winning Business Solution Proposal

Emily, Nythan, Mahmood and Kateeba partnered with Shehu and his fish farm to remove fungi from fish eggs that was killing 50% of his fish. They were able to do this by lowering the pH of the water that the fungi needed to survive. Emily and her team taught Shehu to lower the pH by using methylene blue, which allowed Shehu to stain his fish eggs so he could identify which fish eggs were being affected.

Once Shehu and Emily’s team identified the infected fish eggs, the Lincoln Fish Farming team taught Shehu how to gradually raise the acidity, and pH level of the water, killing the fungus, but preserving the fish.

This allowed Shehu to feed and employ more members of his community, while increasing his profits.

View the Lincoln Fish Farming website where you can see the team present their life-saving solution, view their team website, action plans and daily journal as they worked to transform the world.

The Lincoln Fish Farming team solution proposal is posted below to showcase how students of any age can make a difference in someone’s life.

Lincoln Fish Farming Team Winning Business Solution Proposal

Washington Textile Team Winning Business Solution Proposal

Rachel, Gabby, Anika, Jake and Jessica brought Elizabeth John, owner of KT Textile and Jewelry, into the online age by teaching her how to create a new online advertising campaign, customer review service and accounting program.

The team worked with Elizabeth to create a Facebook page that would highlight her business and excite her existing customer base (all of whom use Facebook on their mobile phones)/ Elizabeth now can share updates anytime with the push of a button. With an online presence, students began building a plan for KT Textile and Jewelry. This included utilizing the new business Facebook page to showcase the beautiful clothing and jewelry to family and friends. Customers would then receive a discount on their next purchase, and new customers would be given a discount for liking the page and then promoting the clothing they bought.

An online presence was essential for Elizabeth’s success as her business was located next to a local University with students who actively engaged in social media. After building up an online presence, the students sought out and found SMS plans she could use to advertise her clothing line.

The students’ plan then showed how Elizabeth could use her social media presence to review new styles of clothing and jewelry to identify new trends in fashion and design. She could then pursue clothing ideas that were new, and appealed to her customers.Next, Gabby and her team worked to get Elizabeth access to an online accounting service called TOFL. Within a few months of implementation Elizabeth finally had an online financial management system allowing her to manage her large customer base, and record her sales and payment due dates. She was also able to create online receipts so she could identify what items were selling best, who her top customers were and how she could continue to grow and expand her business.

Within a year, Elizabeth and KT Textiles and Jewelry had a new world of people and information in the palm of their hands; thanks to the students’ hard work and determination.

The Washington Textile Team’s live business solution proposal is posted below to showcase how students presented new ideas to Nigerian development experts and won a $200 grant for Elizabeth to implement their solutions.

Washington Textile Team Winning Business Solution Presentation

Johnson Computer Repair Team Winning Business Solution Proposal

Deisha, Ethan, Jason, Joanna and Laura worked with Muhammad Sani to expand his computer repair business to include cell phone repair services. The students worked with Muhammad to identify which cell phones his potential customer base used and then create a toolkit needed to repair their most common issues. The Johnson computer team then worked to find solutions to the most common problems facing these phones and created specialized repair kits.

Over the course of a week, students put together repair guides, disassembly guides and replacement guides for Muhammad to use. Students worked with the Leadership Initiatives staff to transfer these files to a portable thumb drive and then turned the repair guides into pdfs that could be viewed on his computer and phone. The students also had Muhammad print them out so he could have access to them, even during blackouts.

After their proposal was selected and Muhammad received a $200 grant to implement their solutions, the students helped build a purchase guide and repair practice schedule so Muhammad could learn how to repair mobile phones gradually before he added the service to his business.Students also worked to troubleshoot major repair issues/problems Muhammed experienced by connecting him to mobile phone repair professionals in the United States so that he could receive expert advice as he brought this vital new service to his community.

The Johnson Computer Repair team’s daily journal is posted below to showcase how students worked over the course of the week to expand their business partners capabilities and how they created their winning presentation.

Johnson Computer Repair Team Daily Journal

Jefferson Irrigation Team Winning Business Solution Proposal

Valeria, Alisia, Erik, Cindi, Brenna, and Sanjeev partnered with Mahmood and his irrigation farm to help with the problem of cost management. After working with Mahmood for a week on Skype, Sanjeev and his team realized that there were limited funds for the farm because Mahmood did not realize the cost of growing vegetables and fruits on his farm. Without knowing these costs, Mahmood was selling some fruits and vegetables for less than they cost him to produce.

This also meant he did not realize he could grow other vegetables for a fraction of the cost and sell them for significantly more than his other produce.

The team soon realized Mahmood needed a formula to calculate growing costs so he could accurately price his produce and provide for his family.

After working out the cost for water, fertilizer, transportation and equipment, the Jefferson team was able to create cost manuals and production indexes aimed at parsing out his expenditures.This became incredibly important to Mahmood in the months to come because he could use these equations to see which plants he could grow at certain times of the year to maximize profit.

Mahmood eventually used these new accounting/growing methods to design a more profitable produce structure so he could maximize his profits, provide more for his family and grow his farm to feed more people!

The Roosevelt Salon Team Winning Business Solution Proposal

The team started by designing a new professional logo for the salon, then created a new slogan for Maria to serve as her shops signature catch phrase.

“Your beauty is my duty!”

Brooke and her team then began researching Western hairstyles and shared them with Maria. Working with hair stylists the students found tutorial videos and made them accessible to Maria so she could learn and start implementing the new styles with her clients.

Over the following six months, these new hair styles became available at her salon and Maria’s Unique Beauty Salon began to stand out within her community.

View the Roosevelt Salon Team websiteto see the team present their solutions, website, action plans and daily journal as they worked to help Maria create more jobs for women in Bauchi, Nigeria.

The Roosevelt Salon Team’s advertising solution is posted below to showcase how much the students were able to accomplish in just one week!

The Roosevelt Salon Team’s New Advertisement, Slogan and Logo For The Unique Beauty Salon